Sister Liliette Ouellette, SSND
(Sister Celine Marie)
April 4, 1939 - May 16, 2024
Liliette Angela Ouellette was baptized on April 9, Easter Sunday, 1939, the second of four girls of Beatrice Gariepy, who was from a farm in Pelham, New Hampshire, and “city slicker” Joseph Arthur Ouellette of Salem, Massachusetts. Considered a “sickly baby,” she was born in Dracut, Massachusetts, and baptized Liliette (little Lily) Angela at St. Joseph Church in Salem to the surprise of her mother who had expected her name to be Lucille. Devout Catholics, the family spoke French and Liliette spoke only French when they moved to Detroit when she was two. She and her sister Celine, 13 months younger, were often taken for twins; they attended kindergarten together at SSND St. Anthony School, Detroit.
In her autobiography, Liliette wrote: From the first grade Celine had planned on becoming a “nun” and for this reason only I was going to be one, too. We had it all worked out. After I graduated from high school, I would wait a year and we would both leave together.
As things turned out, a Sister told Liliette of the Aspiranture when she was an eighth grader, and her parents “not very enthusiastic about the whole thing, had no desire to hold me back.” She later wrote: “Though my feeling for Celine would always be the same, what she was going to do did not bother me. I now see that God used her as an instrument to call me to religious life for which I greatly thank him. Daddy gave me several ‘little conferences’ to make sure this was what I really wanted and told me the door was always open if I would not be happy.” She remembers she said, perhaps with the certainty of youth, “I assured him I had no intention of coming home, except for vacations.”
On September 29, 1953, Liliette boarded the train for St. Mary’s Academy, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and began four happy years in the Aspiranture. In August 1957, she became a Candidate at the Milwaukee Motherhouse, where, a year later, she became Novice Celine Marie, on July 1, 1958. At Mequon, the new Milwaukee Motherhouse on Lake Michigan, , she professed first vows on July 14, 1959, and made her final commitment on the same day, six years later, in 1965.
From 1961 to ’70, Sister Celine Marie served as an elementary school teacher in the Milwaukee Province: at St. James, Grand Rapids in grades 1-3, and at St. Anthony, Detroit, in grades 4-6, Michigan; and at St. Patrick, Chesterton, Indiana, in grades 4-5. She then taught at West Catholic High School, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for one year before transferring to the Wilton Province. No reason for this decision is given in her records, but it probably was a family decision after the death of her Father, on March 31, 1969. Her Mother had come originally from New Hampshire.
Liliette’s first two years (‘7O - ’72) “out East” were spent at St. Stephen School, Trumbull, Connecticut, as 8th grade teacher. Thirty-seven years on Long Island followed in junior high at St. Patrick, Glen Cove for four years, and 12 years at St. Brigid, Westbury from 1976 to 1988. As principal for six years, Liliette served at St. Joseph School, Lake Ronkonkoma, and finally as teacher at St. Martin of Tours in Amityville, from 1994 to 2009. At St. Patrick Parish, Bay Shore, Liliette offered volunteer ministry until 2013.
In both Provinces, Sister Liliette offered her gifts at various times as liturgical musician, guitar teacher, softball and cheerleader coach, and youth minister with young adults to the parishes at which she was missioned. In 1966, Mount Mary College in Milwaukee awarded Liliette a B.A in Education; in 1970 her University of Detroit M.A. in Mathematics certified her as a Math Specialist. At Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York, Liliette earned an M.S. in Administration in 1993.
While she taught at Amityville, Liliette was a member for several years of the New Jerusalem Community, in Bay Shore, a 1970s foundation of Sisters of Mercy of Brooklyn, and Amityville Dominicans. Liliette’s Mother was in a nearby nursing home and when she died on August 13, 2000, this community joined SSNDs in offering solace and support to Lillian and her family.
During this time, Liliette often spent weekends at Wilton with her good friend Associate June Tana. Both were very involved in planning and working for the annual Octoberfest. In January 2000, Liliette is pictured in The Wilton Current, among 20 SSNDs who had served at Westbury, to celebrate Catholic Schools Week with a Eucharistic Liturgy. They remembered lovingly the 147 SSNDs who had taught at St. Brigid’s since its 1918 founding. Sister Antoine Daniel, a member of the Profession Class of 1918, was there to celebrate with them.
By July 2014, Liliette was in the Diocese of Venice, Florida, living at an SSND Residence, in Port Charlotte, and volunteering at St. Maximilian Parish, where she worked with “St. Vinnie’s Volunteers,” the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Three of these parishioners happened to be in Connecticut the day of her funeral and were happy to be able to join the Community. “Lil” loved being in Florida and was now able to reconnect with her sisters Flo and Jackie, who lived there. The children loved their two Aunts’ guitar playing and enjoyed the special treat of going fishing with Aunt Lil on their 12th birthdays.
Liliette died on May 16, 2024, at Tidewell Hospice, Sarasota. Her Provincial Councilor Mary Fitzgerald led the Wake Service at St. Andrew Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on June 12, 2024. Liturgy of Christian Burial was presided over by Msgr. Robert Crofut.
Speaking at the Wake, Mary spoke appreciatively of “Lil’s” loving personality and warm and friendly smile. She read a tribute from Flo Gibson, who remembered her sister Liliette’s attitude toward life: “Live every moment for God; Laugh every day; and Love with all your heart.” Flo also spoke of Lil’s favorite things: rainbows, butterflies, the color yellow, and FaceTime for keeping in touch. Mary shared that Liliette had told her, a few days before her death, “I had a long talk with God this morning, and at the end I said, ‘I can’t wait to see you.’”
In his homily, Msgr. Crofut spoke of her pledge to God as a first-year Aspirant that she would never leave religious life, a youthful desire to which she had been faithful during her 65 years of vowed life.
Sister Maria Iannuccillo carried Liliette’s cremains in the procession leaving the Church, accompanied by honor guard Claire Bonneau, Leonora Tucker, Donna and Diane McHugh, and Janice Algie of her profession class. Burial followed immediately at St. Mary Cemetery, Bethel, Connecticut.
By Sister Kay O’Connell SSND June 19, 2024
